Curse of Naxxramas Arachnid Quarter Guide

The first wing of Naxxramas is out today with each subsequent week being the release of a brand new wing to dig into. The best news? It's free for everyone for a limited time! We've got all the information you need right here to exterminate these creepy crawlies in our database.

Deck Updates

In preparation for your infiltration of Naxxramas, we've added a new feature to our deck system: you can now mark your deck as being intended to defeat a particular boss. We hope this feature will be especially useful for those taking on Heroic Naxxramas where the bosses are significantly tougher and special decks might help you take them down.

The Arachnid Quarter Quick Guide

Arachnophobes, cover your eyes! These three bosses and all their cards are particularly creepy and annoying to deal with. It's dangerous to adventure alone in a necropolis, so take us--we've written up some quick summaries of the fights so you don't have to go in blind.

Anub'Rekhan is a fairly easy fight that relies on good board control. Either zerging him down or stalling him out with impeccable board presence are options, so most decks will work here including default ones. Of course, Druid and Mages are the natural counter to this guy--their hero powers work very well against his. Regardless of the class you choose, it's important to have removal and taunts or else you will get overwhelmed; having the ability to put out a 3/1 every turn gives this spider boss quite an edge.

Anub'Rekhan himself has a fairly solid deck. He has a lot of single target removal from multiple classes.

Grand Widow Faerlina is a difficult fight due to her hero power: Rain of Fire. In general, she throws out the tenants of Hearthstone with this ability--actively punishing players for card advantage. Control decks aren't welcome here, she's a fight where you want to rush her down as fast as possible, and as such she's particularly overwhelmed by zoo or other rush decks.

Faerlina uses a lot of warrior cards, relying on hurting herself as well as you to gain power through enrage and deathrattle mechanics. Her unique Worshippers give her even more removal and she did not seem to be capped on how many she could have in a deck; at one point, she had three in play during one of our playthroughs.

Don't worry, Maexxna is actually quite a pushover compared to Faerlina! She is the polar opposite of the Grand Widow, encouraging an overwhelming board presence due to her hero power: Web Wrap. Since she can remove a card at random, the more cards you can put into play on a turn the better. Decks that rely heavily on battlecries or combos, such as Miracle Rogue, really shine here. Conversely, if you rely a lot on buffs, she can be more devastating, since there's nothing like losing a card you just put Blessing of Kings on. With Maexxna, you want to clear her board as much as possible--since her hero power can send a card back to your hand, it can benefit you a lot to trade and hope that she sends your wounded card back to your hand effectively healing it to full.

Maexxna herself has a wide range of cards which will overrun the board if left unchecked. Through her deathrattles and cards that buff other cards, she'll go for having a lot of cards in play while using Web Wrap to reduce your presence.

RewardsFor defeating Maexxna, you will get two Nerubian Egg cards. You will also get Maexxna to call you own--in a slightly less overpowered format.

Curse of Naxxramas Launch Trailer & Announcement

Blizzard also posted a trailer and a news post showcasing the Archnid Quarter's release.

Blizzard

Gather your strongest spells, sharpen those armaments, and dust off your spider-stompin’ boots—Curse of Naxxramas: The Arachnid Quarter has opened its gates to players! Mind the webs—they already know you’re here. . . .The Arachnid Quarter will be free to all Hearthstone players during the month-long Naxxramas launch event! Every week, a new Naxxramas wing will become available for players to experience. Naxxramas wings will be available for players to unlock in the following order:

The Arachnid Quarter

The Plague Quarter

The Military Quarter

The Construct Quarter

Frostwyrm Lair

The Arachnid Quarter hosts undead humanoid arachnids and their masters, who are eager to eat . . . er, meet you. Victory over these creepy crawly cretins will reward you with all-new Hearthstone cards!The undead nerubian Anub'Rekhan is the first boss players will encounter within Naxxramas. Defeating Anub'Rekhan will award you with two copies of the Haunted Creepercard for your collection.Next, players will challenge Naxxramas’s mistress of venom and premier acolyte trainer, Grand Widow Faerlina. A victory against Grand Widow Faerlina will award you with a pair of Nerub'ar Weblord cards for your collection. The final boss of Naxxramas is the massive spider, Maexxna. Don’t get wrapped up in all the excitement and miss out on your chance to add two Nerubian Egg cards to your collection for defeating her in a duel.Defeating all of the bosses within the Arachnid Quarter () will reward you with the Legendary Maexxnacard for your collection. Your opponents may need to grab a bigger boot*!Lurking within this wing are two Class Challenges that will become available to players who have defeated all of the bosses in the Arachnid Quarter on Normal Mode. These Class Challenges will put your skills with those specific classes to the test! If you overcome these Challenges, you’ll be rewarded with new class-specific cards to add to your collection.For those of you looking for a serious challenge, Heroic Mode of the Arachnid Quarter becomes available after you’ve defeated all of the Arachnid Quarter’s bosses on Normal Mode. Heroic Mode bosses are significantly more difficult than their normal versions, and aren’t for the faint of heart (or the arachnophobic).Experience all of the creepy crawly fun of Curse of Naxxramas: A Hearthstone Adventure by skittering in to the Arachnid Quarter for free today! *Conveniently available within the garden on the Pandaria board.

Curse of Naxxramas Patch Notes

Blizzard also posted the patch notes. One change of note unrelated to Naxxramas is that Eaglehorn Bow was nerfed this patch, now only gaining durability with friendly secrets.

Blizzard

Curse of Naxxramas offers a new single player campaign to play Hearthstone against challenging NPC adversaries. Curse of Naxxramas can be unlocked with gold or real money and can be accessed by players that have unlocked all 9 heroes.

Defeat 15 fearsome bosses to unlock a total of 30 new Hearthstone cards for your collection, including Legendary cards! Naxxramas cards can easily be searched for within My Collection using the search function.

An all-new interactive Naxxramas-themed game board awaits you within the Adventure! Discover the surprises that lurk inside the slime pools, the quivering masses of spider eggs (spoilers: It’s spiders), and more!

Surmount 9 diabolical Class Challenges that test your skills with each of the unique classes of Hearthstone!

Defeating all of the bosses within a wing unlocks the extremely challenging Heroic Mode of that wing. Defeating all of the bosses of Naxxramas on Heroic mode unlocks a new card back for your collection.

Five unique wings await those brave enough to venture into Naxxramas. The first wing, The Arachnid Quarter, will immediately be available to play for free for a limited time. The remaining four wings are immediately available for players to unlock with real money or gold, and will become accessible over a period of time once unlocked.

Comments

Comment by DeFerret

Nice, very nice. Thanks for the strategy hints, they should help my wife and I to trounce these spindly blighters!

Comment by jd575964

on Tue, 22 Jul 2014 16:26:20 -0500

Fantastic Guide and will really help with Faerlina.

Comment by KamiYomi

on Tue, 22 Jul 2014 17:05:17 -0500

For heroic Anub(1st boss) he will constantly summon 4/4 spiders and use shade of naxx the longer u take to kill him the harder it gets you will want to use a rush deck I used hunter combination of secrets and to get extra durability to spam bow attack a few charge minions savage hyena and arcane shot to take him out as quickly as i could.

2nd boss Zoo Lock is extremly effective here substite cards you dont have but get as close as u can to zoolock and its fairly easy to down her on heroic

For final he will focus on sending back your minions to your hand 2 at a time at no cost to him(hero power) this makes silence/battelcry minions like ironbeak owl much more usefull(dont worry about its survival as he uses his hero power before attacking) as he will use shade of naxx and wolf to buff his low cost minion spam you will need to rely on heavy hit gimmicks or high spell damage to quickly down this boss b4 his army swarms you -Fearie dragon wasn't immune to the web hero power!

Comment by Ashelia

on Tue, 22 Jul 2014 17:15:54 -0500

For heroic Anub(1st boss) he will constantly summon 4/4 spiders and use shade of naxx the longer u take to kill him the harder it gets you will want to use a rush deck I used hunter combination of secrets and to get extra durability to spam bow attack a few charge minions savage hyena and arcane shot to take him out as quickly as i could.

haven't tryed 2nd boss yet in heroic

For final he will focus on sending back your minions to your hand 2 at a time at no cost to him(hero power) this makes silence minions like ironbeak owl much more usefull(dont worry about its survival as he uses his hero power before attacking) as he will use shade of naxx and wolf to buff his low cost minion spam you will need to rely on heavy hit gimmicks or high spell damage to quickly down this boss b4 his army swarms you mage and hunter were more effective for this in my experiance but yours may differ.

Neat tips! I am doing heroic tonight so this will be useful!

Comment by kintotech

on Tue, 22 Jul 2014 18:14:12 -0500

An interesting tidbit: Stealing control of the Grand Widow's Worshippers gives you their attack buff. I grabbed control of one as a Priest and I had an attack value!

Comment by Squishalot

on Tue, 22 Jul 2014 19:37:53 -0500

I don't think any of their cards are capped. I had three Haunted Creepers used against me in my first match.

Comment by TheReal

on Tue, 22 Jul 2014 21:32:49 -0500

I was having some success fighting Maexxna as a warrior. Bouncing a witch doctor and a farseer along with my hero power, I was able to negate Maexxna's damage every turn. I was focusing on getting Cleave in my opening hand and filling the other side of the board with 1/x minions as soon as possible. If she dropped a Nerubian Egg, the damage per round went down to 6. Don't get greedy! Focus on killing her using only weapons and direct damage spells like Mortal Strike. If you stabilize quickly enough, you can forego a witch doctor for a wolf rider or another charge creature to slip some damage in.

Once his board is full, don't kill anything and simply outlast her by negating her damage every turn. I was close a couple times but haven't gotten her down yet.

Keep Execute in mind for her Sea Giant, though if you get lucky enough to stabilize quickly, you probably won't see one.

Comment by BlckJesus

on Tue, 22 Jul 2014 22:04:15 -0500

ok first heroic i beat with the Freeze mage control deck. easy-peasy

Second boss i beat with the warlock zoo deck.

The Third was a little more challenging i had to modified my druid deck. Put alot of low cost creatures that have battle cry abilities. Also use mind control deck cuz he gets alot of little guys fast and he kept bouncing the tech back and i kept stealing more creatures until i was able to gain board control. then i alextrassa him down to 15 and next turn i force of natured for the win. if someone wants the deck list just let me know and i can post it.

good luck

Comment by Razordash

on Tue, 22 Jul 2014 23:34:42 -0500

Just finished the heroic bosses, it really does kind of challenge you to open up to new strategies. I'm looking forward to the next few weeks.

Comment by fenixz

on Wed, 23 Jul 2014 03:36:07 -0500

just finished heroic bosses,

first round i used a paladin deck,

second and third boss with a hunter deck

for the third boss i used several low level card elven archer, stonetusk boar, vodoo doctor, its helps alot in teh first turns, also the explosive traps and the ironbeak owl,it also help that you have explosive shots in the later turns Ysera was the card that gave me the advantage with this magic cards,, the one that does 5 dmg to everyone was very useful

Comment by Sarafena76

on Wed, 23 Jul 2014 04:14:25 -0500

After battling the first wing of Naxx I'm glad I didn't waste my money on preordering the other 3 wings.... I think it's pretty dang crappy they limit us to 2 copies of each card yet the bosses have 4 and 5 copies! And the hero powers are just plan bull &%$*! Unless you can drop nothing but legionaries there is NO way you're going to beat hero mode.... so no offence on this one Blizz can do without my money.

Comment by Siriath

on Wed, 23 Jul 2014 06:41:57 -0500

I found that mage is best for Maexxna. The arcane explosion is your greatest friend, as are knife jugglers and mirror images. It took me a few tries, but a good combination of Knife jugglers, mirror Images, Arcane explosions and Mad Bombers can wipe her board quite easily. I also advise anyone to take the Voodoo Doctors since they offer the cheapest healing, and if you only have 2 Doctors on the table they will be back in your hand every turn. 4 health for 2 mana! Not bad. Generally use cheap minions, since they have good synergy with knife jugglers. Also: elven archers! That's another 1 damage to be done on a target of your choosing.Hey, mods! I can write a full guide (at least for my deck) as to how I've beaten all 3 heroic bosses. They might help some, and give others good ideas as to what put in their decks. Just poke me :D

Comment by WizzardlordUK

on Wed, 23 Jul 2014 07:17:53 -0500

I am suprised of how easy normal mode actualy is, beat all 3 with the basic of decks (no legendarys or epics).

Comment by jpmarcotte

on Wed, 23 Jul 2014 09:55:10 -0500

I know at least one of the bosses had Necrotic Poison. I believe it was Anub'Rekhan, but I can't remember for certain.

Comment by Keelerak

on Wed, 23 Jul 2014 11:09:05 -0500

The normal mode was very easy, but I was expecting it to be. Class challenges are somewhat "medium difficulty", I did them on first try but they did require some amount of thinking. The most exciting part about them was that I had no idea about what my deck is and thus planning ahead was very limited. The heroic is a true challenge, too bad there is so little reward for it.

Comment by Herbatka

on Wed, 23 Jul 2014 17:18:55 -0500

I know at least one of the bosses had Necrotic Poison. I believe it was Anub'Rekhan, but I can't remember for certain.

Comment by Herbatka

on Wed, 23 Jul 2014 17:26:29 -0500

The normal mode was very easy, but I was expecting it to be. Class challenges are somewhat "medium difficulty", I did them on first try but they did require some amount of thinking. The most exciting part about them was that I had no idea about what my deck is and thus planning ahead was very limited. The heroic is a true challenge, too bad there is so little reward for it.

Is there actually ANY reward for finishing all the bosses in the heroic mode? As - except of well earned satisfaction - I haven't noticed any :)

Comment by KamiYomi

on Wed, 23 Jul 2014 19:32:03 -0500

there will be card back art for beating heroic tho it doesn't seem obtainable yet.

Comment by JaxOh1

on Wed, 23 Jul 2014 20:45:06 -0500

Advice for Beating Each and every Normal/Heroic Boss:

Anub Reg: is rather simple, no real advice, outside maybe less/no battlecry minions because of Weblord, and be careful with Abombinations if playing with weaker minions.

Anub Heroic: Is quite a step up. Now that the minons are 4/4s for 2 from HERO POWER, as well as the boost in health, can be quite difficult to handle. Seems like best bet would be decks with ways who can combine early game presence, as well as spells/abilities that can either stall or outright kill 4/4s. (flamestrike, or enough spellpower minions like Kobold and Orge can make even Holy Nova/Consicrate/Hellfire/etc kill waves of them) Any creature with 4 power and 5 HP minimum are also great to have (Yeti being a cheap/easy to get one), for it can easy kill at least 1 spider, then either kill a second, or hit anub himself until he either uses a spell or kamikazies into it with another creautre. Other good ones are Ancient Watcher (cheapest one, but only works with Priest or owl for Silence), Injured Blademaster (also only if priest or other reliable heals), Darkscale Healer (weaker offensivelythen these others, but can help heal decently durable minions as well as you), Archmage (also has spellpower buff for AoEs), Sunwalker (if lucky, can take out up to 3 spiders via divine shield, but lord of Arena does have a bit more power on offensive side), and Windfury Harpy (with Windfury, can take out 2 minions). Are other options..but start geting exspensive in cost, and by time they come out, may not be able to save u from the spider army, or may have other drawbacks that could be just as hindering.

Faer (both norm and heroic): Her hero power is very anti-control, damaging you or your board for each card in your hand. I advise AGAINST using cards that give carddraw/bounce your cards (so no draw gnomes/brewmasters). Instead, play agressive/balanced decks/plans, for the sooner you can empty your hand, while still keeping board presence, the better off you are. Enrage minions Amani Berserker, Raging Worgon, Tauren Warrior are exspecially nice (don't injure them yourself, let her, or may leave them open to dying), for they turn those missles into a powerup.There are a few cards to keep in mind when preparing for her. Worshippers give her attack (1 in norm, 3 per in heroic), so avoid using minions that have NO attack. Undertakers start out small, but are a first turn drop, and get bigger with time, so having some offensive presence, or even a small killspell can keep them from overpowering youMain minion to worry for is Necroknights, but by focusing them down, they will take out some of the other minions. Lastly, as she is using many warror-advantage cards, be careful about "pinging", or else Rampage can make them dangerose.

Maexxna: As her heropower bounces a random creature of yours, Battlecry minions are quite useful. The biggest thing to watch for is the Sea Giants....for if you play swarm, or let her Haunted Creeper multiply enough, can be a scary 8/8 coming at you, so having a kill spell (Shadow word: death/Assasssinate) or even disable (hex/polymorph/huminity) is required. Shade of Naxxramass can ether get AoEd for 2, or killed starting as a 3/3, or once Silenced, loses a ton of its threat. Silence is also needed to stop the little Webspinner from granting her a free King Krush, and nice to have to stop other annoying abilites like Sludge Belcher, Nerubian Egg, Stoneskin Gargoyle, Direwolves, or even her Haunted Creeper. Finally, Anub'ar Ambusher is like necroknight, as while cheap and powerful, can be a good target to help hold off the onslaught by forcing an enemy to return randomly when you kill it, so having something to kill or disable this 5/5 is nice.Maexxna Heroic: This is where it gets even more scary...now that she starts with 2 of her spiders out, and for FREE, every turn bounces 2 minions of yours at random. Mentioned above are most of threats/building things, but wanna advise specific cards basically required to deal with her. Ironbeak Owl (and maybe Spell breaker) to silence, Voodoo Doctor/Earthen Ring Farseer to keep you up (as well as perhaps minions), Elven Archer (and maybe Ironforge Rifeman) to ping her minions/her, and if happen to have Big Game Hunter to be a reusable destroyer of Sea giants/Krush/superbuffed Shade. Murloc Tidehunter (and other Battlecry minion generators, including Imp master) are also advised to be able to generate minions so when you do get enough mana to cast multiple minions a turn to go on offence while lwoering chance u lose a better minon. Charge minions (exspecially ones that have more then 1 toughness) also also advised, to be able to get cheap hits on her or her minions before being forced to bouncePriority is Survival (healing spells/killing or disabling big minions), then generation/control (depending on board state, either making sure right minions are silenced, or outright killed), then LAST is damaging her